The idea was that I wanted to have a cleaner look to this site and looking for a way to incorporate what would have been the search firm site into this site. The templates on TypePad are fairly good but I wanted something more professional.

I was thinking about picking up the MovableType service but knew that meant I would be spending many, many hours trying to figure out how to make it work for me.

Franki, Jim and I get on the phone and Franki says (in the tone most of us do when we are excited but a little uncertain what the reaction might be) “So what do you think?” I had just turned my computer on and was waiting for my email to open up so I could get to the link.

So we continued the conversation and she was explaining how and what her ideas were. During this I had clicked on the link. She finished and there was that eery silence that sends shivers down the spine when you are waiting to here that either you are on the mark or way off.

RIGHT ON, Franki is a star. She was able to pick the random thoughts out of my head and put together a great design. See, I was going to look at other blogs and make notes on design, font, colors, etc so she would have an idea of what I like. But no, I got so busy with other things that I never got to it.

Somehow she knew what I was thinking and nailed it. There was nothing I wanted to change.

Today Franki, Jim and I had a follow-up as now seeing the design I had some more things I might want to do like add a Recruiter Jobs Page. A place where companies and agencies can post their recruiter jobs in Minneapolis and St. Paul. This way I can better help my friends than the email I have been doing. There are a couple of others that for now will remain a secret. Shhhhhh, we can’t give it all way yet…

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Yesterday I had my “photo shoot” for the August edition of Minnesota Business. I was feeling very uncomfortable and had all of these things and more running through my head: not sure how to stand, is the tie on straight, do I have a good side, what to do with the hands, in the pockets or out, one in and one out, both in, both out.

I was thinking about the people walking by who were looking at me. They were thinking (because I swear I could read their minds) “who is that fool and why is he getting pictures taken?”

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There have been a lot going on the past few weeks, which is why my number of posts have declined. When asked how I am doing I have two responses, analogies really.

The first is that if I were a professional juggler I would be fired. Of the eight balls that should be in the air five of them always seem to be on the ground.

The second is a movie from the mid-90’s, Keanu Reevesin Johnny Mnemonic. The movie is set hundreds of years in the future and Keanu is a courier that has data uploaded into a chip in his brain. Too much data is on the chip and it starts to “leak” out of his brain. Not literally and you don’t see any seepage but figuratively speaking it would kill the character.

Last night at the Jeune Lune theater the North Loop board gave a presentation to area residents regarding all of the work being done in the neighborhood. Having lived here now for almost three years and looking for office space in the area I am thinking this is a good time to get involved with the neighborhood.

Unlike my volunteer work in getting the University District Improvement Association up and running near the University of Minnesota the North Loop is an already well-run organization that has been in existence for more than 5 years.

If you are into marketing, web development, residential or commercial development, a baseball fan, pet owner, historic preservation among other and live or work in the North Loop consider getting involved.

The North Loop board meetings are held on the last Wednesday of the month (this evening there is a meeting) in the community room at Heritage Landing, 415 North 1st Street. Meetings begin promptly at 7 pm.

I would hope that the big shops and consulting firms in town are willing to help out but they would be making a significant contribution:

The senior professionals being sought often are billed to clients at rates ranging from $150 to $250 an hour, said one information technology vendor that has looked at the program.

"That'll separate the men from the boys, certainly," said another vendor, Richard Winkelmann of CA International, a New York-based IT firm.

Winkelmann attended a meeting with state officials last week about the loan program and called it "an exciting opportunity to put someone at the table with the chief information officer to help set strategy for the state of Minnesota." But he said it's been a tough sell to his corporate bosses.

"I've spent a week lobbying CA to come forward with resources," Winkelmann said. "Uncorking someone is a challenge. We're not there yet."

Yes there is news starting with a great lunch and get to know you session with Steven Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com. Steven is a great guy. What was originally a quick lunch became a near 3-hour chat.

We covered a lot of different subjects including hockey. Steven was born in Canada and is a big fan of the Edmonton Oilers. Later that night his team lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I hope he has recovered.

Steven has invited me to become a guest writer on his site and I gladly accepted. CollegeRecruiter.com is a great tool for college students to find internships and jobs and employers are able to tap into a large database of candidates.

I look forward to working more with Steven.

I received an email from GL Hoffman of JobDig.com announcing his blog, What Would Dad Say. I met with GL at the JobDig.com office back in May. I have a bunch of information to share on the company, their weekly paper and the web site. I really like what they are doing in the markets they serve.

To the best of my knowledge Steven, GL and I are the only three bloggers in the Twin Cities writing about careers, employment, jobs, etc. If you know of a blog in this category send it on to me.

MNspeak.com has recently been through a bit of a makeover. I have not been lurking on the site nearly as much as I used to. Nothing to do with the site, just not enough time in the day. The local blog aggregator is now showing an impressive 269 blogs. Now I just need them to finally change my link to mnheadhunter.com so my feed will once again appear on their site.

Last weekend I noted in MN Headhunter Updatedthat I had connected to Feedburner and I was looking forward to seeing how many RSS subscriptions I have. I know there are people reading the posts from the feeds without coming to the blog.

Today I have 41. I thought the number might be closer to 20. Combined with my 7-day average of unique visitors that makes my current audience 105.

Many thanks to Jim Durbin for this post the other day, How to Talk about your Blog Traffic. I already knew about the statistics part but I had not yet connected to Feedburner. So after making some minor changes to the site and using the widget that TypePad has created I am hooked up. I have been wondering about how many people are reading this by feeds, now I will get to find out.

Bill Gates just made an announcement that was carried on CNN and CNBC. He will transition out of day-to-day operations of Microsoftover the next two years and concentrate on the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and further develop a global health and education network.

Many people dislike Bill Gates, Microsoft, and Windows. I have always been very neutral.

My fascination is with the story of how the company was built and how it has innovated. I will watch with great interest to see what kind of impact the richest person in the world can make. While it may be an enormous task to take on and the responsibility large, what an awesome job that would be.

The last few days I have bumped into quite a few people, a couple of them dear friends of mine, who seem to be handcuffed by fear when it comes to their job search. The fear is on many different levels. Most fear rejection, some fear failure, a few fear not being good enough. One guy I have known for many years and I swear he is fearing success.

Maybe this industry has jaded me a little bit. I wonder, although I doubt I want to know, how many times I have been rejected since April of 1998 when I got into this gig.

In the beginning I was rejected by numerous companies because I was too green, not a known commodity, and we were small. They were right but I had a company to build and bills to pay so I kept going.

Then I think of the thousands of candidates that for one good reason or another (or lied) were not interested in what I had to offer. Maybe it was the wrong location, bad timing, etc. But I only needed the right one at the right time to say yes.

So really I could care less about being rejected. It is rather liberating. If I can be told no enough times then I know a yes coming soon.

Yeah, I know that sounds weird but it works for me.

My advice to job seekers is this, your job is to find a job. I have said it many times here before and it is one of the main themes when I do the job search seminar. If you are a college student, your goal is to get that first “real job” so you can afford rent, student loans, and hopefully that new car you have been wanting.

If you are in your 50’s you have even more reason not to fear rejection. You likely have kids, a spouse, a mortgage, car payment(s), and retirement to think about.

You have no time for fear…

Let me try a different angle on this. I have a single friend. A good-looking dude with a sweat car, great loft, awesome family and yes a great personality. He’s a great guy but he freezes around women. Freezes, literally. Tongue tied. Sweaty palms. The only he does not do (thankfully) is drool.

So I told him we were going to hang out for a weekend and go to many different places like the Farmers Market, the downtown bar scene, the uptown lake scene, etc, likely places where women hang out. That sounded good to him until I told him our goal over the weekend was for him to meet 100 women. Yep, 100. He freaked out and said no. I never should have said it, I know.

My logic is if you meet 100 women, get the names of 70, the phone numbers of 25, the right phone numbers of 15 (because women will not always give you the real phone number), and ten change their mind, or will be traveling for work, or do not return the call, you still have 5 yes’s.

5 women saying yes in a month is more than a date a week. How are you doing now?

Fear is holding you back and soon as you can shake free from it, or at least push it aside for a little while, the sooner thinks will work out for you.

About & Connect

Welcome to the Minnesota Headhunter Blog. My name is Paul DeBettignies (pronounced De-Bett-ingz). I started writing in 2005 to share thoughts and ideas I had as an IT recruiter.

Since then I expanded this site to include MN IT and Recruiter Jobs, links to Minnesota business news and promote the local tech community.

I am the Principal of Minnesota Headhunter, LLC. I am an Evangelist and Advisor who builds teams with startups and tech companies, creates recruiting strategies for Fortune 500 clients and a frequent local and national speaker and article contributor on recruiter, HR, career, networking and social media topics.